Region Glance

Police say drug lab found after San Francisco house blast

SAN FRANCISCO — Investigators found an illegal drug lab in the wreckage of a San Francisco house that exploded last week, killing a woman and damaging neighboring homes, police said.

Darron Price, 53, was arrested Friday afternoon and was booked into the San Francisco County jail for investigation of involuntary manslaughter, manufacturing narcotics and two counts of child endangerment, police said in a statement.

The 22nd Avenue house exploded Thursday morning. KPIX reporte d that the explosion was recorded by a surveillance camera.

A seriously injured person was hospitalized and after it was safe to enter the structure investigators found the woman’s body in the rubble. Investigators also “determined that an active illegal narcotics manufacturing lab was in the residence,” police said.

Police did not release names of the victims.

Democratic lawmakers in New Mexico pushing for alcohol tax

SANTA FE, N.M. — Democratic lawmakers in New Mexico are pushing for a flat 25-cents-a-drink tax to combat the state’s alcohol death rate, which is the highest in the country and nearly twice the national average.

The legislation survived its first committee Friday, advancing on a 6-4 vote.

The Albuquerque Journal reports that if the proposal advances through the Capitol, New Mexico would raise alcohol taxes and dedicate an extra $155 million in new revenue to support health, treatment and other programs.

But the newspaper said the proposal is facing blunt opposition from the national alcohol industry, local breweries and others.

Al Park, a lobbyist for the New Mexico Brewers Guild, said the changes would undo incentives that helped the state grow its craft beer scene.

The bill would damage local breweries that already impose two- or three-drink limits on customers and are “among the leading proponents of responsible drinking,” Park told the Journal.

The flat tax would represent a sharp jump in taxation on liquor, beer and wine, especially for craft distillers and brewers.

New Mexico now taxes alcohol by the liter or gallon. The amount varies based on the type of booze, how much of it is sold and who made it.

But the proposed legislation would shift to a flat tax per serving regardless of what the customer is buying, according to the Journal.

Supporters say the goal is to avoid favoring any particular drink.